Topic Area: Population ControlGeographic Area: IndiaFocal Question: In the
last several decades, fertility control policies in India have failed to
promote a sustainable solution to the problem of overpopulation.What factors have caused these efforts
to fall short? Sources:

In August of 1999 India became the second
country to have its population reach the one billion mark.Although certainly a landmark, a
billion people in a country one third the size of the United States is more
worthy of alarm than celebration.In any country, rapid population growth places a strain on the available
resources, but in a developing country like India, many resources are already
scarce (in 1960, 0.21 hectares of farmland was available to the average Indian,
0.10hectares in 1999, and it is thought to fall to 0.07 hectares in the next 50
years[1]).A quickly regenerating population
exacerbates shortages of food and water and ensures that the nation’s long-term
growth will be hampered by a less healthy therefore less productive work force,
a greater demand for natural resource consumption, and a higher level of
environmental degradation resulting from such consumption.

Realizing
these consequences, India has been implementing official family planning
programs to curb population growth since the 1950’s.However, India’s population has more than doubled since
those days (from 431,463,000 in 1960 to 1,014,003,800 in 2000[2])
and current projections predict that India has a good chance of overtaking
China as the most populated country in the world within the next half century.The graph below illustrates the possible projected
exponential growth paths of both countries.

suggests that
these programs fell short of the goals with which they were implemented.

In
spite of these facts, India’s rate of population growth is actually
decreasing.In 1991 India’s annual
population growth rate was 2.15%[3]
and by 1997 this figure dropped to 1.7%[4],
which indicates that India is indeed making some progress. While this may be
true, most evidence would suggest that the country’s policies have been largely
ineffective and changes must be made to prevent further problems resulting from
overpopulation.

So where
did India’s efforts fall short?Throughout the decades following the implementation of India’s Family
Planning Program in the 1950s, the prevailing idea in dealing with
overpopulation has been that drastic measures needed to be taken.Education regarding temporary methods
of contraception was neglected in favor of encouraging sterilization.
Government agencies would have sterilization quotas to fill among the employees,
and the inability to meet them was sometimes met with withheld salaries.Workers were often rewarded with a
radio or television if they successfully convinced enough people to opt for the
surgery. At its worst, India’s policy included declaring a state of emergency
in 1976 and implementing forced sterilization in poor neighborhoods.When applying for government loans, or
jobs people were told that their chances of receiving such aids would be
increased if they could produce a certificate of sterilization.

The national focus on sterilization seems to have created an “all or
nothing” mentality among Indians towards birth control especially since the
awareness of other, temporary methods of contraception for much of the 20th
century was minute.A 1993
study, India’s National Family Health Survey, revealed that of all
contraceptive use at the time, 67% was by female sterilization (compared to 9%
male sterilization).[5]The prominence of female sterilization
indicates another flaw in the India population control strategies.By targeting women instead of men, the
government inadvertently opts for the more hazardous means of birth
control.The surgical procedure is
more difficult and the rate of failure is high, not to mention the danger to
the patient, which sometimes means death.

Upon
learning of these semi-forced, safety-negligent policies, we get what is likely
to be a fairly accurate explanation why family planning efforts have failed to
curb rampant population growth in India.When the only option available to many people is one that is irreversible,
not to mention potentially life-threatening, people would probably be inclined
to opt for no contraceptives at all.In such a scenario, the problem is not solved and the population keeps
growing and resources per head keep dwindling.

Fortunately, in recent years, it appears that many Indians are aware of
the negative effects of the traditional policies and are striving for a change
in the system.Taking heed of the
recommendations put forth in the 1994 UN Conference on Population and
Development, India has shifted attention away from the strict promotion of
contraceptive measures and is working on the development of women’s economic,
educational and social welfare which will give women more control over their
own bodies and indirectly curb population growth.

In 1994, India put forth a “New Population Plan” (NPP), hoping that by
the year 2010, the average total fertility rate will fall from the early 90’s
figure of 3.4 to around the replacement rate of 2.1.[6]In order to achieve this goal, the NPP
will make strides in improving reproductive health: it will allow universal
access to contraceptives and promote greater education on contraception, train
more people to safely aid in the birth of children, require a formal
registration of all marriages and births, maintain and enforce the minimum age
of marriage at 18, and strive to provide primary education for more citizens.[7]

Other
movements toward progress include the 2000 freezing of the
population-proportional quota of representation for each state in the Lok
Sabha.This means if a state
effectively reduces its population it will not lose votes in the national
government.Also, loans such as
the $57 million from the World Bank affiliate, the International Development
Association in 1989[8], have gone
to rural and urban areas to successfully aid in the improvement of reproductive
health and increasing the awareness of and access to temporary contraceptives.